Retire Early
Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler
In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age
of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this
financially independent lifestyle, they invite you
to take advantage of their wisdom and experience. |
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Interview
of Judith M. Taylor, M.D.
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli
The world is full of amazing people, each with their own story. After
leaving her physician career in New York, Judith Taylor, M.D. re-invented
herself! She became a
well-known author in her expertise of plants.
Dr. Taylor illustrates
perfectly, how just because one becomes a certain calendar age, or after
they leave a fulfilling career, life continues to be grand. Do something
different! Re-describe yourself.
We thank Dr. Taylor for
her willingness to share her story.
Take a look below.

Judith in her element, with exotic
orchids
Retire Early Lifestyle: Could you tell us
a little about yourself?
Judith M. Taylor: I
was born and educated in London and Oxford. As an only child my mother was
very ambitious for me and frequently suggested I become a doctor. When I
entered high school and the teacher asked me what I wanted to do, of course
I replied “become a doctor”.
My mother was a “tiger
mother” before that term had been invented.
When I came to the United
States to do an internship, I met my husband and made my life here. We had
two sons and I now have six grandchildren, a source of great joy.
REL: How have things
changed for you since you left your job as a Doctor and moved to California?
JMT: After
practicing neurology in Scarsdale New York for more than 30 years, I
changed to administrative medicine and retired from my very challenging
position as medical director of a large HMO. I was 60 then.
We moved from New York to
California. What was I going to do now?
Good advice came from an odd
source. The late Carolyn Heilbrun, professor of English at Columbia
University (a.k.a Amanda Cross the mystery novelist), was on a lecture tour
in San Francisco when I went to hear her. She said that ceasing to do
anything constructive just because you had reached a particular calendar age
was absurd. Rather, she said, you should find something very difficult to do
and stick with it.
Interesting.
During all that period I
wrote a number of brief pieces about the history of medicine. Medicine was
mainly botany - until 1899 when synthetic aspirin was first
sold. To me, the idea of writing a book seemed very remote.
Once we settled in our
beautiful house in Tiburon CA, I had time to do many things. Since I love to
cook, at first I
caught up on all the recipes I had cut out of newspapers but never was able
to make. Then I turned my attention to the garden. It needed a lot of work.
I knew we lived in a
Mediterranean climate so I ordered two dozen olive trees. Their beauty
knocked my socks off and I was hooked. Since there were no books about the
trees I decided I had to write my own!
I still enjoyed cooking
and playing tennis but each day now had an important purpose. In order to
write a book about the history of the olive tree in California I first had
to learn about the history of California itself. Then I set out to meet as
many people
in
the olive industry as I could. There is no better way to
learn about a new place than traveling its length and breadth.

A
physician in New York, Dr. Taylor age 45 REL: What has
surprised you the most about your writing lifestyle after you quit your job?
JMT: The
most surprising thing I found out was discovering that writing a book is
addicting.
You cannot write only one
book just as you cannot eat only one potato chip. Very little comes close to
seeing that first book in print. It takes a long time to get it all done but
along the way things pop up and tease you. I found a partially completed
manuscript in the archive where I was checking for more about the olive
tree. It was about the early gardens of California and it nagged at me until
I decided to follow where it lead, and ended up augmenting it and publishing
it as Tangible Memories (2003).
REL:
How many years have you been writing and researching?
JMT: Twenty
five years now. REL: Can you tell us a
bit about the life of a writer?
JMT: In
writing history life gets very exciting when you find an unexpected source
of information. You have to sift through a lot of dull, dry stuff but then
it suddenly becomes worthwhile.
Your best friends are the
librarians. I never met a librarian I did not like. To me, they are saints.

Dr. Taylor’s sixth book: A Five Year
Plan for Geraniums: Growing Flowers Commercially in East Germany 1946–1989 REL: How do you pick
your topics?
JMT: Each
topic emerged from the one which went before. Tangible Memories
ends with a listing of where each of California’s exotic plants came from
and when that was.
I happened to visit New
Zealand to give a paper at about that time and realized that the flowers in
the little front gardens in Auckland were the same as those in London or New
York. It led me to examine the course of plants as they traveled round the
world. The result was The Global Migrations of Ornamental Plants: how
the world got into your garden. (2009)
Then I began to think
about what happened to the plants after they arrived in the United States
and Europe. The result was Visions of Loveliness: great flower
breeders of the past (2014). No one had ever written a book about
those people. As I look back it was all very logical.
REL: Do you travel for
the researching of your books?
JMT: As
noted above, I covered a good deal of California both for original
information from people working in the field as well as to visit specialized
libraries.
I went to Ithaca, New
York to examine some of the holdings of the Alfred Mann Library at Cornell.
I do not advise anyone to visit Ithaca in deepest February!
The other places I
traveled were to the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland,
the archives of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Franklin,
Massachusetts and the US National Archive in Washington, D C.
I am sorry that this is
all rather humdrum not very exciting for the reader.

Tangible Memories: Californians and
their gardens 1800 – 1950
REL: You came to
learning how to use a computer later on in life. How did you teach yourself?
Do you enjoy it? Do you consider your computer a friend or something you
must endure in order to write your books?
JMT: I had
used an office computer at my job but had never owned my own machine.
The best thing for me was
to go to the local community college and take their classes. It turned out
to be a very good choice. The teacher was most understanding and told us
elderly ladies to work in groups. That made it easier and enhanced the
lessons. The college also supplied practice labs and a most understanding
graduate student to hold our collective hands.
I have no emotional
response to the computer. It is now a central part of my life and as soon as
I have finished breakfast I sit down at it to start my work.
REL: I understand that
you pulled together the flower breeders who lived and worked behind the Iron
Curtain. What was that like? Did you travel there to interview them?
JMT: Pulling the
flower breeders behind the Iron Curtain together in A Five Year Plan
for Geraniums: growing flowers commercially in East Germany 1946 – 1989
once again emerged from the two books which preceded it. In both
Visions of Loveliness and An Abundance of Flowers
which was its companion volume, there were more than a handful of amazing
nurserymen who lived and worked behind the Iron Curtain.
Everyone knows what havoc
Communism and socialism wrought on the lives and industries of Eastern
Europe but no one had looked at it through the fragile lens of flowers.
In writing the chapter
about geraniums in Vision, I was able to correspond with a
woman whose grandfather ran a world famous nursery in Dresden, later
becoming part of East Germany. She was the linchpin of the work, giving me
names and information to get started.
Some of the leading
nurserymen were exiled or even murdered in that dreadful epoch. I did have
to have a couple of books translated from the German but it was very
worthwhile.

Dr. Taylor currently at home in San
Francisco, California While I was working on
this last book my husband became increasingly frail and there was no way I
could travel and leave him, even with good help. At that time, it was
possible to do everything on line. It was a far cry from when I wrote my
first book about the olive trees in California in the mid-1990s. Back then I
had to ask for 8 x 10 glossy prints to illustrate my work, and wait for them
to come in the mail!
REL: In your life, what is exhilarating
beyond words?
JMT: Beyond the
huge joys of family the most exhilarating thing for me is finding out
something new which fits with whatever I am working on and can complete the
puzzle.
REL: What are your
greatest passions in life?
JMT: As above,
beyond the great joys of family, I am devoted to fine music, reading history
and cooking.
REL: Tell us about
your greatest personal success, not necessarily finance related.
JMT: That
scholarship to Oxford. Everything flowed from that. It lifted me from a
rather modest background into a new broader world of brilliant students and
quirky teachers.
REL: How do you
contribute to the world?
JMT: At one time I
did some volunteering but I cannot do that now. I give what I can to worthy
charities.
On the other hand, a
London book reviewer, Robin Lane-Fox, said he will never look at the flowers
in his garden the same way again after reading Visions.
And only this morning my hairdresser told me he was planting sweet pea
seeds. I told him sweet peas first reached England from Sicily in 1699 but
were always the same color. Then in 1865 an English nurseryman bred them
in bright scarlet, and won a gold medal for them. This set off a frenzy which
lasted 40 years.
My hairdresser was shocked!
So, perhaps I have opened some
perspectives about appreciating the history of flowers and plants. That
makes me very happy. REL: What is a secret
fact about you?
JMT: I adore
detective stories.
REL: What is your
biggest splurge?
JMT: Books, books
and more books!
REL: What do you do
for fun or entertainment?
JMT: Go to the
symphony or chamber music concerts. Do crossword puzzles. Play “Words With
Friends”.
REL: What is your next
project?
JMT: I am being
allowed to sort through the papers of a distinguished faculty member at
Stanford to see whether she left enough materials after her death to
complete a book she contemplated about women and gardens.
Again, we'd like to
thank Dr. Taylor for taking the time to answer our questions, and for
sharing her life with us. For more information about Dr. Taylor and her six
books, go to Horthistoria.
For more interviews of Successful
Retirees and Captivating Characters,
click here.

About the Authors



Retire
Early Lifestyle appeals to a different
kind of person – the person who prizes their
independence, values their time, and who doesn’t
want to mindlessly follow the crowd.
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